When I heard about the university-sponsored study tour called “Industry and Culture in Japan,” I knew I could not pass it up. Japan has always been something of a utopia, a pie-in-the-sky dream I’d built up in my head. I knew if I didn’t go, I would regret it forever… Wow, what an experience it was. It was led by one faculty leader, Gayle Elliott. There were nine students on the trip, including myself. We all had the incredible opportunity to spend two weeks in Japan, learning about the country, its culture, and its soul.
I cannot stress this enough: it was truly a dream come true.
Growing up, I had a fascination for Japan. It primarily started with Pokemon, and Gameboy, but when I was in first grade, I suffered a seizure that prevented me from playing many more videogames… So, I resorted to TV and novels. I watched the Pokemon TV series, and really enjoyed Studio Ghibli films, especially Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro. The artwork was astounding to my adolescent eyes. In middle school, I had read an Americanized manga series called Miki Falls by Mark Crilley that had a lot of beautiful illustrations of Japanese scenery. After they vacationed there, I heard from my cousins all about Japan being a clean, quiet, beautiful place. All of this subconsciously contributed to my interest in the nation!
By the time I arrived in high school, we were learning more about Western history and culture than Eastern. I loved learning about American and European history in school, don’t get me wrong, but I wish we learned more about Asian history. What little we did learn about fascinated me, especially as an Asian myself. Despite it being an Asian nation, it had a heavy hand in a lot of European/American history. During WWII, amongst all of the main world powers at play--England, America, and France versus Germany, Italy, and Japanese--it was the only Asian nation. In class, we also dabbled in the internment camps that the Japanese endured during the war. But until last month, that was really the extent of my knowledge of the Japanese history as it pertained to my education.
Little did I know how full the Japanese history was. Coming to Japan gave me a chance to really dig deep and learn as much as I could about a nation that was many centuries older than mine. Not only was their history rich, it was incredibly well-documented and preserved. My favorite museum was the Edo Museum in Tokyo. Edo was the ancient name for Tokyo, and was also the name of a period of time in Japanese history when shoguns were an important part of the government. The museum displayed a lot of social and cultural history, from ancient times to modern day, which I enjoyed very much.
One of the most interesting things I learned about Japan’s history was how literacy was valued amongst everyone, not just the nobles. Children would attend terakoya, or private temple schools, regardless of their status. By the end of the Edo period, the literacy rate of Tokyo was extremely high.
Speaking of schools, another really interesting experience I had in Japan was visiting Toyo University and staying with a host family. These two activities allowed me to get a much more personal look at the education system in Japan in its various facets. Toyo University is a liberal arts university in Tokyo with roots in the study of philosophy. We were able to spend a day with Toyo students, interfacing with them and talking about the similarities and differences of our two universities.
A majority of university students at Toyo are commuter students. Their class schedules are defined by bells that ring throughout the day, much like at American high schools. I thought that was interesting, because unlike universities in America, the schedules are not so flexible. One of the students, however, mentioned that she takes evening classes to have a cheaper tuition and to have the opportunity to work during the day. Lots of students have part-time jobs to help front the cost of their tuition. Not very many of them take out loans the way American students do. We also got to visit their cafeteria, which had many different cuisines such as Italian, Middle-Eastern, etc. Everything in the cafeteria was the same price, 500 yen, unless you wanted to add on more food or drink. For some reason that really stuck out to me as quite unique, because at my university cafeteria, TUC, all the restaurants have their own prices. Japanese students also aren’t very interested in current events/politics in the same way a lot of American students are. I think this is because they don’t engage with the same issues we do. They are privileged to the point they don’t have to worry about issues such as racism, classism, sexism. Or perhaps, they pretend not to be worried about these issues, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to fight and voice our opinions. On this, I am not sure..
Young students who are still in primary and middle school are a little different. I had the opportunity to stay with the Kanekos, a family that lives in Yokohama about 1 hour away from Tokyo. They have 3 daughters, ages 19, 16, and 13. It was interesting getting a glimpse into their everyday lives. Every day, the girls take the trains about an hour into Tokyo to go to their schools. They don’t go with their parents, and they have a lot of independence and trust. Their days typically run very late, and they won’t return home until 8 or 9pm most nights due to extracurriculars. They study English in schools the same way we would study Spanish or French. They all wear uniforms, regardless of if the school is private or public. This contributes to the groupthink philosophy that is the underlying lifeblood of Japan.
Even though they are quite serious about their schoolwork, the daughters of my family were very playful and excitable. On my free day in Tokyo, I spent the whole day with the 13 year old and all of her friends at the mall. It was so fun getting to hang out with them and have a “girls’ day out.” All of her friends were very sweet and kind and giggly. They loved hearing stories about America, being in college, and my having a fiance, as Troy and I are now engaged. I felt very special! I felt like I got to be a big sister for a day :)
All in all, my trip to Japan was very fun and informative and culturally engaging. I don’t think I would ever want to work there--I don’t have the stamina to work that much and be that dedicated to my job. However, it’s good to have the connections with Gayle and Fusion Systems, if I ever did want to work there one day. I would really love to go back and visit Japan and explore more of the country. I feel like even though we were there for 3 weeks, we still barely got to skim the surface of such an interesting country. This was such an incredible way to end my college career!
I cannot stress this enough: it was truly a dream come true.
Growing up, I had a fascination for Japan. It primarily started with Pokemon, and Gameboy, but when I was in first grade, I suffered a seizure that prevented me from playing many more videogames… So, I resorted to TV and novels. I watched the Pokemon TV series, and really enjoyed Studio Ghibli films, especially Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro. The artwork was astounding to my adolescent eyes. In middle school, I had read an Americanized manga series called Miki Falls by Mark Crilley that had a lot of beautiful illustrations of Japanese scenery. After they vacationed there, I heard from my cousins all about Japan being a clean, quiet, beautiful place. All of this subconsciously contributed to my interest in the nation!
By the time I arrived in high school, we were learning more about Western history and culture than Eastern. I loved learning about American and European history in school, don’t get me wrong, but I wish we learned more about Asian history. What little we did learn about fascinated me, especially as an Asian myself. Despite it being an Asian nation, it had a heavy hand in a lot of European/American history. During WWII, amongst all of the main world powers at play--England, America, and France versus Germany, Italy, and Japanese--it was the only Asian nation. In class, we also dabbled in the internment camps that the Japanese endured during the war. But until last month, that was really the extent of my knowledge of the Japanese history as it pertained to my education.
Little did I know how full the Japanese history was. Coming to Japan gave me a chance to really dig deep and learn as much as I could about a nation that was many centuries older than mine. Not only was their history rich, it was incredibly well-documented and preserved. My favorite museum was the Edo Museum in Tokyo. Edo was the ancient name for Tokyo, and was also the name of a period of time in Japanese history when shoguns were an important part of the government. The museum displayed a lot of social and cultural history, from ancient times to modern day, which I enjoyed very much.
One of the most interesting things I learned about Japan’s history was how literacy was valued amongst everyone, not just the nobles. Children would attend terakoya, or private temple schools, regardless of their status. By the end of the Edo period, the literacy rate of Tokyo was extremely high.
Speaking of schools, another really interesting experience I had in Japan was visiting Toyo University and staying with a host family. These two activities allowed me to get a much more personal look at the education system in Japan in its various facets. Toyo University is a liberal arts university in Tokyo with roots in the study of philosophy. We were able to spend a day with Toyo students, interfacing with them and talking about the similarities and differences of our two universities.
A majority of university students at Toyo are commuter students. Their class schedules are defined by bells that ring throughout the day, much like at American high schools. I thought that was interesting, because unlike universities in America, the schedules are not so flexible. One of the students, however, mentioned that she takes evening classes to have a cheaper tuition and to have the opportunity to work during the day. Lots of students have part-time jobs to help front the cost of their tuition. Not very many of them take out loans the way American students do. We also got to visit their cafeteria, which had many different cuisines such as Italian, Middle-Eastern, etc. Everything in the cafeteria was the same price, 500 yen, unless you wanted to add on more food or drink. For some reason that really stuck out to me as quite unique, because at my university cafeteria, TUC, all the restaurants have their own prices. Japanese students also aren’t very interested in current events/politics in the same way a lot of American students are. I think this is because they don’t engage with the same issues we do. They are privileged to the point they don’t have to worry about issues such as racism, classism, sexism. Or perhaps, they pretend not to be worried about these issues, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to fight and voice our opinions. On this, I am not sure..
Young students who are still in primary and middle school are a little different. I had the opportunity to stay with the Kanekos, a family that lives in Yokohama about 1 hour away from Tokyo. They have 3 daughters, ages 19, 16, and 13. It was interesting getting a glimpse into their everyday lives. Every day, the girls take the trains about an hour into Tokyo to go to their schools. They don’t go with their parents, and they have a lot of independence and trust. Their days typically run very late, and they won’t return home until 8 or 9pm most nights due to extracurriculars. They study English in schools the same way we would study Spanish or French. They all wear uniforms, regardless of if the school is private or public. This contributes to the groupthink philosophy that is the underlying lifeblood of Japan.
Even though they are quite serious about their schoolwork, the daughters of my family were very playful and excitable. On my free day in Tokyo, I spent the whole day with the 13 year old and all of her friends at the mall. It was so fun getting to hang out with them and have a “girls’ day out.” All of her friends were very sweet and kind and giggly. They loved hearing stories about America, being in college, and my having a fiance, as Troy and I are now engaged. I felt very special! I felt like I got to be a big sister for a day :)
All in all, my trip to Japan was very fun and informative and culturally engaging. I don’t think I would ever want to work there--I don’t have the stamina to work that much and be that dedicated to my job. However, it’s good to have the connections with Gayle and Fusion Systems, if I ever did want to work there one day. I would really love to go back and visit Japan and explore more of the country. I feel like even though we were there for 3 weeks, we still barely got to skim the surface of such an interesting country. This was such an incredible way to end my college career!